Attention!!! Pro Sports Daily will be down on Wednesday morning from 5:00am - 7:00am eastern time for database maintenance. All Sports Direct Inc. properties will be down during this scheduled outage.
Sorry for any inconvenience that this outage may cause.

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

2012 Season in Review

The season started with great news. Firing Angelo, firing Martz, trading for Marshall, and getting solid depth in free agency.

We drafted and based on the 2012 results it wasn't great. We saw some great things out of Alshon and moments of solid play by Shea, but at this point nothing to write home about. E-Rod played the FB position well but was underutilized as a TE, which is odd seeing as he probably has the best hands out of all the TE's on our roster. Hardin coming into the 2013 season will be interesting to watch. He seems to be a smart player, but bugged by injuries.

Once again the o-line was ignored because the great collective minds of Lovie and Tice thought they saw potential and talent with this group. And while they didn't give up as many sacks this year as years past, they still gave Cutler no time to throw and forced Cutler to avoid sacks way to often. Lance Louis and Garza are two players worth keeping for the long haul, but the rest need to be reserves, including Carimi until he decides to man up and stop getting knocked over every other play.

Cutler to Marshall proved to be potent, but was relied on far to much. Tice failed to create a gameplan that utilized Bennett (who was extended) to his potential, and failed to use Forte in the passing game (yeah Forte the guy who is a 1000/1000 potential player). The game plan against the Lions week 17 was pretty solid, but not executed perfectly. Bennett was used as a true slot reciever and had moments of greatness. Alshon is going to give secondaries headaches in the coming years. Kelen is not even worth mentioning, he played himself out of the NFL this year.

The defense showed that it is aging but isn't ready to call it quits just yet. The long season wore on them and injuries took their toll. Urlacher might have 1 season left in him, but I am not sure if he will return to the Bears as a player. Tillman still has a lot left in the tank, and is worth keeping around just because he seems to handle CJ well. Jennings showed that an offseason of preparation can turn you into a pro-bowler. Julius Peppers showed he still had game but might be worth trading. The production this year will most likely be the best he has left and his stock might be worth draft picks to the right team. Melton will deserve the paycheck he recieves this offseason and is worth tying up long term. Wright and Conte play very well together and with the addition of Hardin next year should have a top 5 safety rotation.

Players who may have played their last games as Bears: Hester, Peppers, Urlacher, Davis, webb, Carimi

Players who need to step up next year: Hardin, E-Rod, Alshon, Shea, Forte

The only numbers that really mattered for the Bears this season were 10 and 6, a won/loss record that wasn't good enough to earn a playoff berth and ultimately cost coach Lovie Smith his job.

But there are other team and individual statistics and rankings that are interesting to digest, so here's a review of the recently-completed campaign by the numbers:

The Bears offense ranked 28th in the NFL in total yards, 10th rushing and 29th passing; the defense was fifth in the league, eighth against the run and eight versus the pass.

The Bears led the NFL with 44 takeaways, 24 interceptions and nine defensive touchdowns, one shy of the league record set by the 1961 Chargers. They ranked second with a plus-20 turnover margin, trailing only the Patriots (plus-25). Nine of the top 11 teams in turnover margin made the playoffs, with the Bears and Giants (plus-14) the only exceptions.

In red-zone touchdown efficiency, the Bears tied for 22nd on offense at 50 percent (23 TDs on 46 possessions) and tied for 10th on defense at 51.2 percent (21 TDs on 41 possessions).

On third downs, the Bears ranked 22nd on offense at 36.5 percent (80 of 219) and sixth on defense at 35.5 percent (78 of 220).

On yards per play on first down, the Bears were 31st on offense (4.65) and 18th on defense (5.34).

On average starting field position after kickoffs, the Bears return team ranked seventh (24.0-yard line) and their coverage team was second (19.9-yard line).

Cutler led the NFL in fourth-quarter passer rating (114.7) and was 21st in third-down passer rating (75.9).

Matt Forte tied for 12th in the league in rushing with 1,094 yards and five touchdowns on 248 carries. Michael Bush was 45th with 411 yards and five TDs on 114 attempts.

Brandon Marshall tied the Patriots' Wes Welker for second with 118 receptions behind the Lions' Calvin Johnson (122) and ranked third with 1,508 yards behind Johnson (1,964) and the Texans' Andre Johnson (1,598).

Marshall led the NFL with 39 receptions on third down, tied for fourth with 11 touchdown receptions and tied for 11th in scoring among non-kickers with 66 points.

In yards from scrimmage, Marshall ranked 11th and Forte tied for 14th. In first downs, Marshall (75) was 10th and Forte (60) tied for 23rd.

Robbie Gould, who missed the final three games with a calf injury, ranked 24th in scoring with 96 points and tied for 10th with 38 touchbacks.

Punter Adam Podlesh was 30th in gross average (42.0) and 18th in net average (39.4).

Devin Hester was 10th in kickoff return average (25.9) and 18th in punt return average (8.3).

Tim Jennings led the NFL with nine interceptions. Major Wright tied for 11th with four and Charles Tillman tied for 29th with three. Tillman led the NFL with 10 forced fumbles and tied the Rams' Janoris Jenkins for the league lead with three interception return touchdowns.

Julius Peppers tied for ninth with 11.5 sacks. Israel Idonije was 35th with 7.5. Corey Wootton tied for 36th with 7. Henry Melton tied for 47th with 6. Peppers and Kelvin Hayden were among five players who tied for the league lead with four defensive fumble recoveries.

The Bears finished eighth on special teams based on a composite ranking of 22 different statistical categories.

I don't get why everyone suddenly wants to move Peppers. He's still quite good, and hasn't had too many problems with injuries other than the nagging thing with his knee or whatever that he was able to play through and still put up pretty good numbers. His versatility also makes him quite valuable to our team. If Melton or Paea got hurt, he could move inside for them. Just sayin'. We also don't know what the deal with Shea is, and if Izzy will be back next year, so I'd at least wait till we know that to move him. He's an important piece.